 Hello and welcome to the news click. There is a continuous environmental degradation that is going on and also the spaces that are meant for public are diminishing day by day. Today we are going to discuss about these issues and we are joined by Dr. Shiraz Wajee who is president of Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, which has been working on these issues since long. Welcome to news click. Thank you. So first of all let's start with what was the idea behind forming this entire group. What came into your mind that you started this group and you thought that there is an intervention required in this field? Actually I will take you back to the history of the organization actually it was started something like 1975 and soon after Indira Gandhi spoke in the Stockholm Conference in 1972 the famous conference actually with which all the environmental discussions were started in the whole world and she spoke on the issue of poverty is the biggest polluter kind of statement was given which was quite discussed throughout different countries. And it was the time actually when the environmental issues were understood and that was I mean that started to be discussed in open forum and open domain in public also. So number of movements were also going on at that time I mean it was quite an old thing actually but still I mean like in south there was silent valley movement in Kerala there was Kerala Shastra Hith Parishad which was relating the culture of the people and the environmental thing the famous Chipko movement was going on. So number of movements actually environmental movements which were going on across the country because of which number of small action groups were formed. So Bombay Environmental Action Group, Balampur Action Group and the famous Balampur Environmental Action Group was also formed. So Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, Kalpavriksh all these youth groups actually which came into existence as the action groups for taking this discourse of environment to the public and making it as a public issue the environment not a kind of saving only trees or I mean doing something around greens or something but largely on the whole issue of looking environment as something which is contributing to the poverty is also something actually which is linking with the livelihoods and environment and development to be taken together. So that was the establishment of the organization. So we were some of the research students working in Gorakhpur University at that time who came together and formed this Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group. So how does the group function? I mean what are the focus areas that you aim at? Is there people's participation that you aim at and I mean how does it work? What areas do you look at? Yeah people's participation was the reason why we came out of university also because we were academic kind of group at that time some of the research students but we were also helping the people who were affected because of the sugar. There are two major industry in that area you know I mean that sugar cane growing area. So distillery and the sugar factory these are two main industries. So because of the pollution of the industries the effect which is happening to the farmers in terms of polluting their fields agriculture field the fertilizer factory actually which is producing lot of emissions and that is that was causing the problem for the crops and so on. So all these so we were helping the farmers by providing them data and information analysis of the effluent so that they can do the advocacy they can fight their cases for their compensation for negotiation with the industry for taking the issues to the government. So that actually started the participation thing and because of that actually people started coming to our group also and then university I mean was not very comfortable that so we came out of university and then we started our main work from out of university on different issues of environment. So we worked on sustainable or ecological agriculture then floods and water logging then climate change related issues urban climate change resilience and so on. So that is the timeline the history of the organization. Can you throw also some light on some of the important movements that you have I mean that important important movements that you have led or achievements that you have got through working in these areas and ensuring that some change take takes place. One issue is also like I mean we have largely small and marginal farmers I mean that is the primarily that area actually depends for the livelihood on agriculture or agriculture related activities that is livestock or fisheries and so on so agriculture and allied activities. So and the land holding is very small it's quite fertile land and when the density of people is very high because of that land fragmentation is quite high and very small piece of land which is available to a farmer who has to fully depend for their livelihood for the livelihood of their families on that small piece of land. So the small and marginal farmers are implanted and gradually with the advent of green revolution and the impact of the green revolution the input cost in agriculture was gradually going up. So what happened gradually is that the net gain which the farmers were getting was kind of narrowing down. So the input cost was increasing the output cost also increased but not to that extent and the input cost kept on growing but the output cost actually was little I mean it became stagnant after some point of time. So then net gain was less and less so that is how we started doing ecological agriculture so how low external input ecological agriculture is the answer and then we started working with the farmers the small and marginal farmers and the women farmers and they came together and then we also tried to organize them for I mean making their own organizations understanding the whole issue of low external input agriculture do the advocacy with the government do the advocacy with the seed companies and so on and we ensure that their capacities and their priorities are met. So the way the urban planning is moving the way the development is taking place I mean the marginalized section of the society is left out of it they're not thought about and also in the in the process there also various public spaces that are that are taken over by the state by the private companies by the government which which is also directly or indirectly related to livelihood of the people how do you see that aspect of this entire urban planning that is taking place at such a massive level. If you talk of the livelihood of poor people I mean who are not so economically very strong and there are marginalized because of various reasons social reasons gender reasons and so on I mean there are so many reasons caste-based for your developmental processes and so on. So the thing is that the poor people are largely dependent on these commons common property resources for their livelihood. The fodder comes from the commons the food also comes from the commons like I mean water bodies you get fish you get singhala you get lalmakhana and so number of things actually you get fuel from the commons. So the commons actually provide free input to the livelihood system of the poor people but gradually what is happening both in the rural and the urban area is that these commons are going and this is diminishing very fast and you go to any village or you go to the urban especially in the urban I mean you talk in the urban area also in the urban areas also these water bodies or these commons where the ecosystems and their services what we call ecosystem services these ecosystem services are providing free input to the livelihood cycle of the poor people but with the powerful lobby they grabbing the land the builders lobby the real estate mafias and so on the even the social and politically empowered people actually they try to grab those land and those common things the common property resources are for everybody and that is why it is nobody's property so I mean nobody objects so it is easier for encroaching on those lands and those water bodies so gradually it has gone down and what I was talking is also that in a city like Gorakhpur where we had almost 103 water bodies a few decades back now we have only 18 water bodies which remains so that is a kind of degeneration of the common property resources which is happening and because of that the citizens are in problem we are in the problem the government is in the problem not only water bodies but also public spaces parks for children to play and also I mean they used to be the squares where people used to sit chat have tea talk about politics so that entire development process is also getting hampered because of this kind of develop urban development that we are witnessing am I right two incidences I will like to mention here is like I was in World Urban Forum recently in Kuala Lumpur last week I mean 10 days back a week back only so the children of Kuala Lumpur they demonstrated in front of the world readers that they do not have any playing spaces left in Kuala Lumpur so that is the kind of things actually which are happening in most of the cities the second is that in the heat action plan which is developed for Gujarat I mean Mdawa and all those cities the thing is that the commons have reduced and because of the heat actually the I mean the rich people can buy air conditioners they can buy resilience but the poor people cannot buy those things they have to go to some shady places some parks some open spaces so they have to go there for the so even the climate change impact or the disaster impact that is also I mean the open spaces are also helping them into building their capacities for the resilience so it is very important that these commons and the open spaces are protected are part of the urban system and the rural system because of which we all will get benefited so also this would be my last question Gorakhpur has been in news since last one year for some other reasons as well Japanese in Cephalitis more than a hundred children have died and it continues to happen every year but nobody seems to be paying attention towards it how do you see that issue is is your group also involved in such issues yeah it is unfortunate that it is happening for such a long time and every alternate or every year children are dying I mean there is no I mean I will say that we have to take concrete measures all everybody actually who is part of the system whether it is government or it is public or it is medical doctors or when whosoever and have to see that government is trying to make the treatment system better and stronger but we will also have to see how the the causes of the problem actually they are also addressed unless you address the causes if the water logging is increasing the breeding spaces for the mosquitoes are increasing the ground water table is being getting in contaminated water bodies are going so been we have to see in a holistic manner so that the common person actually who and the poor people actually is again I mean this disease is happening mostly in the poor people actually who are coming from the remote villages so we have to see that these services and these like safe drinking water safe sanitation facilities proper surveillance mechanism that exists in that reaches to the poor people also and also the treatment treatment system is very important and that has to be strengthened by the same time the causal factors which are responsible for the problem is also important to be addressed with the people's participation. Thank you a lot sir for giving us your time and all the best for your future endeavors thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you for watching use click keep following our website in our Facebook page.